Mizzou TE Jason Reese celebrated his 22nd birthday on Saturday. The senior big man rewarded himself by having the best game of his Tiger career, highlighted by a 61-yard touchdown with 13:07 to go in the second quarter.
Reese had two clutch receptions against South Carolina, racking up 88 yards and a touchdown that put the Tigers up 10-0 in the first half. At 6-5 and 250 pounds, Reese is a huge target for Drew Lock and also uses his size to clear holes in the running game. But the Euless, Texas, native showed that he also has elite speed, breaking away from the Gamecocks secondary on the most explosive play of the day for the Tiger offense.
"I definitely want to give credit to the offensive line," Reese said. "The blocking was amazing on that play and Drew stepped up and threw a perfect pass. That's one of the things that we practice all week. I saw the backside safety off the hash and I knew I had to run the skinny away from him."
Reese's 88 receiving yards set a new career-high, topping his previous best performance of 47 yards, which also came against the Gamecocks last season. Mizzou QBLock saw the perfect opportunity for a big play strike to Reese early in the second quarter, and he delivered.
"It was one of our pop passes," Lock said. "They had been fitting really hard on our runs and we sold it well with Ish (Witter). I was able to hit Jason in stride. Jason has some wheels, you saw it tonight. That's something we can use more and more in our offense moving forward."
Reese's 88 yards led all Tiger receivers and accounted for more than one third of the Tigers' yards through the air tonight. His 61-yard touchdown was the longest play from scrimmage tonight for either team and helped stretched the lead to double digits in the first half.
Although the Mizzou offense couldn't settle into a groove in the second half, Reese and the Tigers aren't going to let tonight's performance slow their progression moving forward.
"Our training is based on responding to adversity," Reese said. "We're eager to go back to practice tomorrow. The clock's already hit zeroes in tonight's game. We're onto Purdue already."
Mizzou will host Purdue next Saturday at 3 p.m. on SEC Network. Tickets are still available for the game and can be purchased at MUTigers.com/fbtix or by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS. For all the latest on Mizzou Football, stay tuned to mutigers.com and follow the team on Twitter (@MizzouFootball) and like the team on Facebook and Instagram.